Abstract

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are criticized for the questionable generalizability of their patient samples to real world populations. This study compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of children from the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) to those from the NIMH Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). On the whole, we found no compelling evidence against the representativeness of the MTA sample, but the limited power from MECA and NHANES may have lead to noteworthy differences between datasets being statistically nonsignificant.

Keywords

ADHD External validity Generalizability

This study was supported in part by NIMH grants MH66960, MH65430, and MH30915. The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA) was conducted and supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in collaboration with the MTA Investigators. The NIMH Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study was conducted and supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in collaboration with the MECA investigators. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of all the MTA investigators, the MECA investigators, or NIMH.

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